Illegal: How America's Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All

by Elizabeth F. Cohen

A political scientist explains how the American immigration system ran off the rails -- and proposes a bold plan for reform

Under the Trump administration, US immigration agencies terrorize the undocumented, target people who are here legally, and even threaten the constitutional rights of American citizens. How did we get to this point?

In Illegal , Elizabeth F. Cohen reveals that our current crisis has roots in early twentieth century white nationalist politics, which began to reemerge in the 1980s. Since then, ICE and CBP have acquired bigger budgets and more power than any other law enforcement agency. Now, Trump has unleashed them. If we want to reverse the rising tide of abuse, Cohen argues that we must act quickly to rein in the powers of the current immigration regime and revive saner approaches based on existing law. Going beyond the headlines, Illegal makes clear that if we don't act now all of us, citizen and not, are at risk.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Race, Immigration

272 pages, Hardcover

Published January 28, 2020

Reviews

[Cate Tedford]

It’s INSANE how we are literally indoctrinated with dehumanizing, anti-immigrant rhetoric in the United States from the get-go. The message of this book so important.

“Whatever one thinks about unauthorized immigration, a system that fails to ensure basic due process for people ensnared in immigration courts or deportation proceedings is a system grossly indifferent to a foundational principle of any democratic country.”

“And to whom, if anyone, are our government agencies accountable, if not the courts and government investigators? If government agencies can operate without accountability to the law, what are the implications for a democratic political system?”

[Joshua Dowling]

Thorough and in-depth exploration of the state of the US immigration system and how we got there.

[Dylan Jones]

The purpose of this book is purely educative, and it certainly read like a textbook or part of a syllabus. But I still enjoyed it, Cohen writes very straightforward and bluntly, and I felt able to retain this book well.

[mark mendoza]

An important introduction that is perhaps better at seeing the problems than proposing solutions. I was particularly shocked by the present facts, e.g. at least twenty-two adults died in ICE custody between 2017 and 2019, although ICE ceased acknowledging “deaths in custody” on its website in 2017. Many thousands of sexual abuse and torture allegations have surfaced since 2018, particularly those filed by teenagers and pregnant women at the hands of ICE and CBP agents. But, more horrifying, is the future shown here in current ICE and CBP projects/plans, e.g. ICE now uses military-grade weapons, regularly receives military training and training from those involved in police oppression of black communities, and has built an “urban warfare” training facility to target inner city noncitizens of all kinds (since 'immigrants' per se are no longer their targets)..

[RJ]

Through an idealistic lens you can easily shine a light on all problems, particularly asylum trails for non-citizens. With the system being exploited by economic migrants and only ~500 judges to hear these cases a filtering mechanism of sorts is necessary. We can see what happens when that does not happen. The remain-in-Mexico policy served the purpose of filtering / discouraging economic migrants vs. those who truly need safe harbor. This book is making a case so the author tries to make the case that all migrants should be welcome, and all immigration offices are corrupt. The corruption should be investigated, but lets not throw the baby out with the bath water. We live in a very different world than the founding of the US, when we needed more people.

[Rick]

Dr. Cohen has written a book that provides a succinct history of the United States' race-based immigration practices, and the abuses of those who have enforced it. More worrisome from this books are the dangers of humanitarian crises inside and outside the USA, and how CBP and ICE have even focused on the activities of US Citizens (spying on activists, journalists) and even to the point of rounding people up and illegally placing them into the system for deportation. The book also provides suggestions for remedying these abuses.

This book is a relatively quick read, and accessible to lay readers. The book is absolutely worth the time and money spent reading it.

[Paul]

Smart, unflinching, and relevant. Cohen delivers an excellent overview of how America came to classify some immigrants as illegal, and how racist ideas coupled with government power created a lawless zone of abusive law enforcement that now threatens all of our liberties.

[Stephen Bonebrake]

A really clear explanation and history of our immigration policies, how screwed and racist they are and how it can be fixed.

[Mike Thomas]

open the borders

[Emily Anderson]

This book was an indictment of ICE and seems to be advocating radical change in immigration policy. Cohen does provide some good information about our immigration history and the laws. I agree that our immigration system needs reform, but it is much more complicated than Cohen suggests.
It's worth reading.

[Pavan Singh]

Check out our Books in 5 review of Illegal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrTt4...

[Chris]

I read the book.

[José Mendoza]

This book provides a careful retelling of U.S. immigration history that makes it clear that the real threat to our democracy (e.g., authoritarianism and white supremacy) comes not from immigrants, but from harsher and more expansive forms of immigration enforcement. In telling this story, Cohen also lends significant intellectual firepower to the “Abolish ICE” movement, which thanks to books like this will hopefully start to be taken more seriously.

[Pamela Arjona]

I loved this. I learned so much about the history of immigration law and authority of CBP, ICE, etc in the US from the book. This highlights the reality that it is not only immigrants impacted by the regimes at play, but all Americans. It was great background for my thesis and I was able to pivot a lot from things mentioned in the book for further research.